


Many Moments

by EuphoricSound



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Community: cottoncandy_bingo, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-01
Updated: 2012-11-01
Packaged: 2017-11-17 12:20:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/551510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EuphoricSound/pseuds/EuphoricSound
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I was supposed to be writing something else, and this drabble came out. Kinda fits the fluff bingo prompt “telescope” if you squint. ;D</p>
            </blockquote>





	Many Moments

It happened in many moments. 

The first moment was the moment she felt the arrow head embedded in her shoulder. Not her heart, but her shoulder. And then all was dark.

The second moment was sometime during the deprogramming. It had been a bad day. He simply sat next to her. Didn’t attempt to say anything or encourage her. Didn’t ask her to be anything that she wasn’t. He just sat quietly. He stayed. 

The next moment began with a hail of bullets. She dodged behind a car, but before she could take aim, her assailants were down, arrows in their chests. She stole a glance over her shoulder and searched for the rooftop where he watched her through the scope. She found him, and he nodded at her. And she knew that he had her back.

In the fourth moment, she was dressing a fresh bullet wound in his side, and noticed for the first time that he had as many scars as she did.

Another moment came as they dressed for a formal party, their covers already in place as an aristocrat and her assistant. He zipped up the back of her dress and their eyes met in the mirror. There was a smoldering intensity in his gaze, and she felt it set her blood on fire. It was a long, hungry moment.

They were in a safe house for one of the other moments, waiting for an extraction. She had started to sing as she prepared a simple meal for the two of them, and he picked up the refrain. 

He woke with such a loud start from a nightmare that she had broken the lock on the adjoining hotel room door, thinking he was under attack. He had looked at her then with a strange mix of shame and fear as she lowered her weapon, and there was such vulnerability in his gaze that this too became a moment.

She was in the training room at headquarters, wailing on a punch bag, the weight of her past heavy on her shoulders. She didn’t know when he’d entered the gym, but suddenly he was holding the bag in place until she exhausted herself. Then he was holding her. It took her a moment, but she let herself sag against him.

Another moment crept up on her after a hard mission. She’d slipped into his bed and curled her body into his. She felt a strange relief spread through her as he immediately wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close, and she slept deeply that night for the first time in a very, very long time. 

He was kissing her, and as his hands slid up her body she wrapped her limbs tighter around him, pulling him closer. He was whispering to her, and her name, reverent on his lips, felt truer than any name she’d ever adopted. As they moved together he caught her gaze with his, and whether this moment lasted minute or an age, she couldn’t discern.

It was morning, and she was reluctantly sliding out of bed when she felt his hand close around her bicep, tugging her back under the covers with a grumble of protest at her imminent departure. He tangled his legs up with hers, and sleepily nuzzled her neck until she sighed and hit the snooze button on her alarm. She didn’t fall back to sleep, but in this moment she was content to listen to the sound of steady breathing beside her. 

An otherwise mundane moment was the one that took her by surprise. They were strapped into seats in the back of the quinjet. He was bloodied and bruised, she had a dislocated shoulder and a rapidly blackening eye. He looked over at her, too tired to speak, but he grinned and reached over to gently brush his thumb over a cut on her lip. She felt her heart suddenly contract in her chest as she smiled back at her partner. Even battered and battle-scarred, they were a matching pair. 

It had happened in many moments, had been just as true in all the other moments. It was childish and it was dangerous. But this moment was the moment when Natasha Romanoff realized that she was in love with Clint Barton.


End file.
